Is It A Dream?

A Course In Miracles (and "The Disappearance of the Universe" by Gary Renard) use the dream metaphor to describe the illusion we know of as physical reality. The problem with this metaphor, is that it seems to trivialize the whole experience.

Seth, in Session 37 (page 297 in Volume 1 of "The Early Sessions") uses the metaphor of hynotism and says the following:

"Existence on your plane or any other plane is merely self-hypnosis. As far as an analogy is concerned, this one is very nearly perfect. Your existence, and mine for that matter, on any particular level is predetermined by complete concentration or focus of inner selves upon the particular universe in question. And your camouflage patterns can most aptly be compared to the hallucinary effects created by the hypnotist upon his subject.

Only in this case the hallucinary effects are actual constructions on the plane in question, and involve problems that must be worked out. The hallucinations appear more or less consistent merely because everyone on that particular level is under the effects of the same self-hypnosis, and because they have already constructed hallucinary senses, the outer senses, in order to perceive the hallucinary world that they have created.

This is not meant to deny the importance or the value of the particular hallucinary universe in any way. It has a definite purpose. But the analogy holds, and is more valid than you might think. Complete concentration and focus is your answer.

When this focus is finished, when the subject tells himself "Now I will come to, now I have solved the problems that I set out to solve", then what happens is the withdrawal of the self from the plane. The construction vanishes and is heir to the materials which compose the particular universe."

I like this description, for it shows that there is a shared purpose behind a universe construction and that these universes are ephemeral like the dream analogy, but they serve specific purposes. Our "descent" into physical form within a duality is likely a shared exploration of the question "How can we be individuals and yet one with All-That-Is?" We happen to have taken that question to the extreme limit of the illusion of separation. Its nice to know that this plane is a useful exploration of the question (an empowering thing to know) and that we actually didn't separate from our source nor permanently create chaos, confusion, "evil" and any other bad thing we can think of (the guilt eliminating foundation of A Course In Miracles).

The Transcendors have often likened souls to "God's questions"...which is why we're at the frontier of creation and which is why our creations often appear to create chaos and disharmony (which themselves are new possibilities), even though our intentions are good. Lazaris spoke of souls in a similar way, except he added that we never completely formulated the question because as soon as we started to "think" of a question we became lost in an explosion of universes which expose the infinite aspects of all questions!

Enjoy the quest!
Al